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“Nope. Not that I recall.”
“Can you check with the employers of the victims down there to see if anyone from that company ever visited their offices?”
“What do you got?”
“Two victims, each worked at different businesses in separate industries. Both businesses had someone from this company Computelex on-site, working on their computers.”
There was a moment’s pause. “Your theory is that the killer works for this computer company?”
“I know it’s a long shot, but the timelines match up. I’m following up on whether the fact that a Computelex employee visited the office of both victims is statistically unlikely. If it was a big company like Microsoft, maybe. But I’ve never heard of this Computelex.”
“I’m on it.”
I then made the same call to San Francisco PD.
I had checked further with Manhattan Family Insurance, where Elaine Anastas had interned, and the medical supply company that had employed Chloe Tumber. The best they could tell me about the Computelex representative was that he was a white male. Neither company was even sure of his name. Someone from the insurance company thought it might be David. No one at either company saw him interact with the victims.
I heard a voice and glanced up from my computer screen to see John Macy standing at my desk with another man I didn’t recognize.
Macy said, “I guess you thought it was pretty funny to leave me here in the office.”
I went back to my computer. “Not now, Macy. I’m busy.” I tuned him out.
“I don’t think you’re that busy. In fact, I know you’re not. This is Detective William Funcher.”
I kept my head directly in front of the monitor as I said, “Nice to meet you, Detective Funcher.”
Macy said, “He’s your replacement. You’re no longer on the serial killer case.” Finally I looked up at the men. Funcher looked uncomfortable. Macy was beaming. This was what he’d been waiting for. And he wanted to add a little drama to it. I hated to disappoint him.
“Where do you work now, Funcher?”
“The One-Eleven.”
“Where’s that, Queens?”
“Yeah, 215th Street.”
“You work in homicide?”
“General assignment.”
“And how do you know Mr. Macy?”
The fact that I didn’t get an answer right away told me this wasn’t a case of a competent detective rising to the top. Funcher was just the first guy Macy could find who’d agreed to come up here.
I wrote down the information from my computer screen about Computelex. They were based in Omaha, Nebraska, but claimed to cover the whole country. This might be the right lead.
I looked up again at the two men standing in front of my desk. “Fortunately, I don’t work for you, Macy. I work for a guy named Harry Grissom. And if he walks in here and tells me I’m replaced, I will give everything I have to Detective Funcher. Until then, like I said, I am really busy.”
That’s when Macy made a major error. He touched me without permission.
Chapter 84
As soon as I felt John Macy’s hands on my shoulders, something in me snapped. It may seem minor, but what he did is technically an assault. That’s what I kept in my head as I reacted. I could picture it in a report. I was in fear for my safety after he assaulted me. That sounded good. I was going to go with that.
I really don’t know if it was instinct or machismo that made me spring out of the chair and turn to face Macy. I could’ve told him to cut it out and kept working. Instead, I was now face-to-face with the mayor’s aide.
I snarled, “Keep your damn hands off me.”
